Contents:
- Medical Video: 12 Ways Your Body Tries To Tell You That Your Liver Is Being Damaged
- Causes of red face after drinking alcohol
- Effects of drinking alcohol other than red and hot faces
- How do you keep your face red and hot after drinking alcohol?
Medical Video: 12 Ways Your Body Tries To Tell You That Your Liver Is Being Damaged
Do you like to drink beer or liquor until your face turns red? Be careful, reddened skin after drinking alcohol, especially on the face, cannot be considered trivial. This can be a sign that your body is not able to digest alcohol properly. A study in South Korea found that the effects of drinking alcohol can be very serious, especially in people who have reddened skin after taking it.
Causes of red face after drinking alcohol
The effect of drinking alcohol is quite a lot, namely the face is red and feels hot. The condition where the skin is red after drinking alcohol is called alcohol flush reaction (AFR). This condition occurs in people whose bodies have genetic abnormalities that cause enzyme disorders in the liver (liver). This causes the body to be unable to break down acetaldehyde, which is oxidized alcohol.
Because the body must be in a normal state to break down acetaldehyde into acetate. In the case of AFR, the ALDH2 enzyme that breaks down acetaldehyde to acetate does not function properly. As a result, even when alcohol is drunk, blood pressure increases and acetaldehyde that cannot be broken down accumulates and causes blood vessels to dilate. That's why facial skin turns red and may feel warm or hot.
This condition generally occurs in women and East Asians. However, the fact is that around 500 million people throughout the world also experience the same thing.
Therefore, do not underestimate if your face turns red and hot after drinking alcohol. This is actually not because you are not used to drinking. So don't even increase the portion of your drink or drink alcohol more often than before.
Effects of drinking alcohol other than red and hot faces
Usually people whose faces are immediately flushed and hot after drinking alcohol will also experience some other effects of drinking alcohol such as:
- Redness in the neck, shoulders and throughout the body (only in rare cases)
- Heart rate increases
- Headache
- Nausea
In addition, research in South Korea involving 1,763 participants found that 527 people had AFR (redness after consuming alcohol), 948 did not experience AFR reactions after drinking, and 288 did not drink alcohol.
The study also stated that men who drank more than 4 glasses of alcohol a week had a 2-fold higher risk of hypertension compared to men who did not experience AFR and who did not drink alcohol at all. This is an initial risk for people with AFR to experience other disease complications such as heart disease, stroke, and other health problems related to hypertension.
How do you keep your face red and hot after drinking alcohol?
To prevent the effects of drinking unwanted alcohol such as red and hot faces, of course the first thing to do is limit your alcohol consumption.
The problem is, if you consume it carelessly alcohol can bring bad effects to the body. The effects include triggering brain damage, impaired liver function, increasing the risk of cancer, and if consumed by pregnant women will interfere with fetal development.
Therefore, try to limit alcoholic drinks per day. No need to drink excessively to get a relaxed sensation, especially until drunk. The greater the level of alcohol, then you have to limit the dose.
Also, never drink beer or other liquor on an empty stomach. Drinking alcohol on an empty stomach can irritate the stomach lining. While drinking alcohol after eating is safer and can prevent ithangover (high) and red and hot face.
